The
Pirates had the weekend off after
a great season opening win over the Duke Blue Devils but for me
the work just begins. This past weekend I started looking to East
Carolina's September 24th game at West Virginia. Why? That's the
first of four games to be televised by WITN this season and
there's a lot to go over.

Did you know that West Virginia leads the overall series 14-2? I'm sure
you diehard Pirate fans are well aware of the dominance of the
Mountaineers in the overall series. How about this… did you know
that West Virginia has won the last four meetings by an average of just
over 45 points a game? That's bad but after seeing the Pirates play
against Duke I venture to say that this year's game in Morgantown will
be much more competitive.

I've also started to look at game tape from the last few years and
every time I watch tape of the opening coin toss from last year I get a
chuckle.

Let me take you back to September 4, 2004. Team Captains Eric Butler,
Chris Moore, Ryan Dougherty and Marvin Townes walk out to midfield for
the coin toss. The referee asks Butler if he wants to call heads or
tails. Butler calls heads. The coin shows tails giving the Mountaineers
the option to take the ball or defer to the second half. They defer.
The direct quote from the ref was "Do you want the ball or do you want
to kick off?" Butler said "We want to kick off" Knowing that ECU had
just made a big mistake, the ref then asked Butler twice "You want to
kick off?" Butler replied, "Yes." Twice.

While this conversation was taking place between Butler and the
referee, Chris Moore had a look of disgust on his face. He knew exactly
what had just happened but only one team captain is allowed to talk to
the ref during the coin toss. Moore was completely helpless as was
former ECU player Kevin Monroe who had a front row seat to the debacle.

That day WITN just happened to be doing a feature story on Pirate
Sports Radio Network sideline reporter Kevin Monroe so we were tapped
into the radio broadcast of that game. I'll never forget what Kevin
said to Jeff Charles and Carlester Crumpler in the booth following the
coin toss. "Guys I think we may have messed this one up," said Monroe.
"We may have to kick both halves."

And that they did.

West Virginia went on to beat ECU 56-23 so in the grand scope of things
the coin toss meant absolutely nothing!

However, it did give Pirate fans a glimpse into things to come that
season. From that point on, ECU looked dazed and confused in almost
every aspect of the game and for most of the season. That confusion was
no where to be found last week during the 2005 season opener against
Duke.

Trust me! The Pirates will have their stuff together on September 24th
in Morgantown.